Katniss and Company Read the Hunger Games
by Baby Beluga
Summary: Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Prim, Haymitch, Effie, Cinna, Finnick, and Johanna read The Hunger Games.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary**: Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Prim, Haymitch, Effie, Cinna, Finnick, and Johanna read _The Hunger Games_.

**Disclaimer**: Obviously, I don't own the Hunger Games.

**A/N**: I'm sure this has been done before but I searched and couldn't find a completed one. It seemed like a fun idea, so I decided, why not?

* * *

When they wake up, none of them know where they are.

Katniss Everdeen looks around, spotting a strange assortment of people. Gale, her best friend, and her sister Prim. Haymitch Abernathy, the drunken mentor for the Hunger Games, and Effie Trinket, District Twelve's escort. She knows Finnick Odair, a victor of the Hunger Games, immediately because he's such a celebrity, but it takes her a moment to place the girl with spiky hair beside him. Then the name hits her. Johanna Mason, the girl who pretended to be a weakling to win the Hunger Games. But there's one more person in the room- a dark skinned man with gold eyeliner- that she doesn't recognize.

"Why are we all here?" Johanna asks. "I don't even know all of you."

"This isn't like what I usually dream," Effie says, eyes wide, but then she spots the handsome man in the center. "Oh, Finnick, you're here. How's my wig? Are you here to spend another night with me?"

"That's foul," Haymitch says. "Even for you, Trinket."

Finnick holds in a laugh, but then says, "Have any more secrets for me, Effie?"

Effie blushes.

"I don't think any of us are dreaming," Finnick says.

"Oh," Effie says, her blush reddening.

"Maybe the Capitol put us here," Haymitch says, slurring his words slightly. "What's up with this room anyway? Where's all the alcohol?"

The room is barren, white with no windows or doors.

"How are we supposed to leave?" Peeta asks.

"Look," Gale says, pointing to one of the corners. "What's that?"

The group moves to the corner and picks up an object.

"It's a book," Cinna says quietly, pointing out the obvious as they all stare at the title. "The Hunger Games."

"My favorite part of the year," Haymitch says bitterly. "Now, really, where's the damn alcohol?"

There's a note on the book with only a few words. READ THIS AND YOU'LL BE FREED. YOU ARE SAFE HERE. THE CAPITOL WON'T HEAR YOU.

"Why not?" Effie asks.

No one answers her. She picks up the book and begins to read the back.

"Once I'm on my feet, I realize escape might not be so simple. Panic begins to set in. I can't stay here. Flight is essential. But I can't let my fear show. Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun…oh…how exciting!"

"We're brought here to read a book about the worst possible thing," Gale says flatly. "Yeah, so exciting."

"Well, why am I here?" Johanna says. "Unless it's my story…but why would Finnick be here, or the rest of you?"

"Why, indeed," Cinna says. "I think an introduction is in order because I don't know most of you." So they go around and introduce themselves rather quickly, and then Cinna says, "I suppose we should get started if we ever want to get out of here."

"But there's only one copy," Prim says. "We're going to have take turns reading, I think."

"So who wants to go first?" Effie asks. When no one volunteers, she squeals. "Then I guess I will!"

Katniss and Gale exchange a glance. How can anyone understand her reading with her strange Capitol accent? But somehow, they do. Perhaps if this wasn't a story about the Hunger Games, they'd even find it funny.

Effie clears her throat and begins to read.

**When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's-**

_Oh, no_, Katniss thinks, _this is a story about me._

"Now, wait a second," Katniss says, "maybe we shouldn't read this. It's probably trash. We don't even know where it came from."

The pink-haired lady named Effie purses her lips. "It's very rude to interrupt, Katniss."

"You're just upset because it's about you, Catnip," Gale says with a smile.

"Catnip?" Peeta asks, glancing between the two of them.

"It's nothing," Gale says, his smile growing wider.

**-warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping. **

Katniss's stomach drops, and she looks around the room. Peeta crosses her arms, and Gale clenches his jaw. Prim's eyes water and her breath quickens, but Katniss places a gentle hand on her sister's back and tells Prim that she's fine.

"Ah, the Reaping," says Johanna. "The Capitol's favorite day of the year."

"Well, it is very exciting," Effie says, thinking Johanna has made a good point.

Haymitch snorts. "Very exciting to send our children off to die."

Effie knows that the Hunger Games are necessary and that being a tribute is a honor that any child would dream for, so she doesn't understand Haymitch's hostility. Then again, Haymitch is always hostile, even more so when he's sober.

**-I prop myself up on one elbow. There's enough light in the bedroom to see them. My little sister, Prim, curled up on her side, cocooned in my mother's body, their cheeks pressed together. In sleep, my mother looks younger, still worn but not so beaten-down. Prim's face is as fresh as a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named. My mother was very beautiful once, too. Or so they tell me.**

** Sitting at Prim's knees, guarding her, is the world's ugliest cat.**

"That's not very nice, Katniss," Prim says.

"No," Katniss agrees, "but it's true."

** Mashed-in nose, half of one ear missing, eyes the color of rotting squash. Prim named him Buttercup, insisting that his muddy yellow coat matched the bright flower. He hates me. Or at least distrusts me. Even though it was years ago, I think he still remembers how I tried to drown him in a bucket when Prim brought him home. Scrawny kitten, belly swollen with worms, crawling with fleas.**

Effie stops reading. "That's barbaric. How could you hurt a kitty cat?"

"I know," Prim says with her chin tilted up.

Katniss rolls her eyes. She won't tell them that her family couldn't afford it. She has her pride after all.

**The last thing I needed was another mouth to feed. **

** But Prim begged so hard, cried even, I had to let him stay. It turned out okay. My mother got rid of the vermin and he's a born mouser. Even catches the occasional rat. Sometimes, when I clean a kill, I feed Buttercup the entrails. **

"That is disgusting," Effie says.

"Oh, shut it, Effie," Haymitch says. "If you're going to keep up the commentary, we'll have someone else read."

"That's very rude of you," Effie says.

"Effie," Cinna says. "Why don't we continue reading?"

"Sure thing, Cinna," Effie replies brightly before shooting a glare at Haymitch and muttering about manners under her breath.

**He has stopped hissing at me. **

** Entrails. No hissing. This is the closest we will ever come to love**.

Gale and Katniss let out a few laughs, and Prim giggles. Everyone else looks at them oddly, but Katniss knows that if they were acquainted with Buttercup that they'd understand.

**I swing my legs off the bed and slide into my hunting boots. Supple leather that has molded to my feet. I pull on trousers, a shirt, tuck my long dark braid up into a cap, and grab my forage bag. On the table, under a wooden bowl to protect it from hungry rats and cats alike, sits a perfect little goat cheese wrapped in basil leaves. Prim's gift to me on reaping day. I put the cheese carefully in my pocket as I slip outside. **

**Our part of District 12, nicknamed the Seam, is usually crawling with coal miners heading out to the morning shift at this hour. Men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many who have long since stopped trying to scrub the coal dust out of their broken nails, the lines of their sunken faces. But today the black cinder streets are empty. Shutters on the squat gray houses are closed. The reaping isn't until two. May as well sleep in. **

"If you can," Johanna says bitterly.

**If you can. **

Katniss looks at Johanna for a minute. _Maybe we have something in common_.

** Our house is almost at the edge of the Seam. I only have to pass a few gates to reach the scruffy field called the Meadow. Separating the Meadow from the woods, in fact enclosing all of District 12, is a high chain-link fence topped with barbed-wire loops. In theory, it's supposed to be electrified twenty-four hours a day as a deterrent to the predators that live in the woods—packs of wild dogs, lone cougars, bears—that used to threaten our streets. But since we're lucky to get two or three hours of electricity in the evenings, it's usually safe to touch. **

"How ironic," Finnick says. "The deprivation of resources supplied to District Twelve allows the criminal activity that they're trying to prevent."

"Funny," Haymitch says. "The Capitol hates irony."

Nobody asks him what he means, figuring that he's still drunk from before.

**Even so, I always take a moment to listen carefully for the hum that means the fence is live. Right now, it's silent as a stone. Concealed by a clump of bushes, I flatten out on my belly and slide under a two-foot stretch that's been loose for years. There are several other weak spots in the fence, but this one is so close to home I almost always enter the woods here. **

**As soon as I'm in the trees, I retrieve a bow and sheath of arrows from a hollow log. **

Johanna raises an eyebrow. "But are you actually good with a bow?"

Katniss shrugs. "I'm alright."

"She's better than alright," Peeta pipes up. "My father buys her squirrels. He says she hits them in the eye every time."

"It's true," Gale says. "She does."

** Electrified or not, the fence has been successful at keeping the flesh-eaters out of District 12. Inside the woods they roam freely, and there are added concerns like venomous snakes, rabid animals, and no real paths to follow. But there's also food if you know how to find it. My father knew and he taught me some before he was blown to bits in a mine explosion. There was nothing even to bury. I was eleven then. Five years later, I still wake up screaming for him to run.**

Prim rests her head against Katniss's shoulder.

Effie shoots Katniss a pitying glance and stops reading, and Katniss pretends not to see it. In her attempt to ignore Effie's look, she spots Peeta staring at her in interest. She looks away quickly. _Not like I want_ him _knowing this stuff._

"I'm sorry for your loss," Cinna says.

"You've still got your mother and sister," Johanna says. "It could be worse."

"Johanna," Finnick warns.

"What?" I'm just saying it could be worse."

"Keep reading," Cinna says.

** Even though trespassing in the woods is illegal and poaching carries the severest of penalties, more people would risk it if they had weapons. **

"I don't know about that," Effie says. "Not everyone wants to be a criminal."

"How long do we got to be locked up in here?" Haymitch asks. "The company's getting old real quick."

Effie lets out a humph and goes back to reading.

**But most are not bold enough to venture out with just a knife. My bow is a rarity, crafted by my father along with a few others that I keep well hidden in the woods, carefully wrapped in waterproof covers. My father could have made good money selling them, but if the officials found out he would have been publicly executed for inciting a rebellion. Most of the Peacekeepers turn a blind eye to the few of us who hunt because they're as hungry for fresh meat as anybody is. In fact, they're among our best customers. But the idea that someone might be arming the Seam would never have been allowed. **

** In the fall, a few brave souls sneak into the woods to harvest apples. But always in sight of the Meadow. Always close enough to run back to the safety of District 12 if trouble arises. **

** "District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety," I mutter. **

Haymitch snorts. "You're funny, girl."

** Then I glance quickly over my shoulder. Even here, even in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone might overhear you. **

**When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country, Panem, from the far-off city called the Capitol. Eventually I understood this would only lead us to more trouble. **

** So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts. Do my work quietly in school. Make only polite small talk in the public market. Discuss little more than trades in the Hob, which is the black market where I make most of my money. Even at home, where I am less pleasant, I avoid discussing tricky topics. Like the reaping, or food shortages, or the Hunger Games. Prim might begin to repeat my words and then where would we be? **

"I'm not a little kid," Prim says. "I know what not to say."

Katniss only places a kiss on Prim's forehead and says, "I know you do, little duck."

**In the woods waits the only person with whom I can be myself. Gale. I can feel the muscles in my face relaxing, my pace quickening as I climb the hills to our place, a rock ledge overlooking a valley. A thicket of berry bushes protects it from unwanted eyes. The sight of him waiting there brings on a smile. Gale says I never smile except in the woods.**

**"Hey, Catnip," says Gale. My real name is Katniss, but when I first told him, I had barely whispered it. So he thought I'd said Catnip. Then when this crazy lynx started following me around the woods looking for handouts, it became his official nickname for me. I finally had to kill the lynx because he scared off game. I almost regretted it because he wasn't bad company. But I got a decent price for his pelt**.

**"Look what I shot." Gale holds up a loaf of bread with an arrow stuck in it, and I laugh. It's real bakery bread, not the flat, dense loaves we make from our grain rations. I take it in my hands, pull out the arrow, and hold the puncture in the crust to my nose, inhaling the fragrance that makes my mouth flood with saliva. Fine bread like this is for special occasions. **

** "Mm, still warm," I say. He must have been at the bakery at the crack of dawn to trade for it. "What did it cost you?" **

** "Just a squirrel. Think the old man was feeling sentimental this morning," says Gale. "Even wished me luck." **

Katniss's eyes skirt to Peeta, wondering once again why he's here. She didn't know why most of the people in the room with there, but she wasn't friends with Peeta. They had only acknowledged each other's existences one time…that one time.

**"Well, we all feel a little closer today, don't we?" I say, not even bothering to roll my eyes. "Prim left us a cheese." I pull it out. **

** His expression brightens at the treat. "Thank you, Prim. We'll have a real feast."**

"You're welcome," Prim says.

Effie stares down at the book, a large grin growing on her face. "Oh, this is so exciting!"

**Suddenly he falls into a Capitol accent as he mimics Effie Trinket-" **

"That's me," Effie says. "I'm in the story. Oh, this truly is the most exciting thing that's happened to me all week."

**"-the maniacally upbeat woman who arrives once a year to read out the names at the reaping. "I almost forgot! Happy Hunger Games!" He plucks a few blackberries from the bushes around us. "And may the odds—" He tosses a berry in a high arc toward me. **

**I catch it in my mouth and break the delicate skin with my teeth. The sweet tartness explodes across my tongue. "—be **_**ever**_** in your favor!" I finish with equal verve. We have to joke about it because the alternative is to be scared out of your wits. Besides, the Capitol accent is so affected, almost anything sounds funny in it. **

"That is not true," Effie says. "I don't have an accent."

"You do," Cinna says, "and so do I. To Katniss, at least."

"I suppose," Effie says, but she doesn't sound convinced. "Although, I don't understand why anyone would be scared out of their wits."

"That's because you have no wits to be scared out of," Haymitch says.

Effie sniffs. "Really, that's so unkind of you."

"He's jealous, Effie," Finnick says, and it's clear it's to appease Effie to everyone but her.

"Of course, of course."

**I watch as Gale pulls out his knife and slices the bread. He could be my brother. Straight black hair, olive skin, we even have the same gray eyes. But we're not related, at least not closely. Most of the families who work the mines resemble one another this way. **

**That's why my mother and Prim, with their light hair and blue eyes, always look out of place. They are. My mother's parents were part of the small merchant class that caters to officials, Peacekeepers, and the occasional Seam customer. They ran an apothecary shop in the nicer part of District 12. Since almost no one can afford doctors, apothecaries are our healers. **

** My father got to know my mother because on his hunts he would sometimes collect medicinal herbs and sell them to her shop to be brewed into remedies. She must have really loved him to leave her home for the Seam. I try to remember that when all I can see is the woman who sat by, blank and unreachable, while her children turned to skin and bones. I try to forgive her for my father's sake. But to be honest, I'm not the forgiving type. **

Prim winces, and Katniss pulls her closer and whispers, "Sorry, Prim."

**Gale spreads the bread slices with the soft goat cheese, carefully placing a basil leaf on each while I strip the bushes of their berries. We settle back in a nook in the rocks. From this place, we are invisible but have a clear view of the valley, which is teeming with summer life, greens to gather, roots to dig, fish iridescent in the sunlight. The day is glorious, with a blue sky and soft breeze. The food's wonderful, with the cheese seeping into the warm bread and the berries bursting in our mouths. **

** Everything would be perfect if this really was a holiday, if all the day off meant was roaming the mountains with Gale, hunting for tonight's supper. But instead we have to be standing in the square at two o'clock waiting for the names to be called out. **

** "We could do it, you know," Gale says quietly. **

Katniss sighs. She knows how this conversation goes. They have it every day on Reaping Day. Gale smiles weakly at her, and she shakes her head.

**"What?" I ask. **

** "Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make it," says Gale. **

"You'd be dead in ten minutes," Johanna said. "But I mean, don't let that stop you. I'm all for adventure, which this story is lacking so far."

**I don't know how to respond. The idea is so preposterous. **

**"If we didn't have so many kids," he adds quickly. **

**They're not our kids, of course. But they might as well be. Gale's two little brothers and a sister. Prim. And you may as well throw in our mothers, too, because how would they live without us? Who would fill those mouths that are always asking for more? With both of us hunting daily, there are still nights when game has to be swapped for lard or shoelaces or wool, still nights when we go to bed with our stomachs growling. **

** "I never want to have kids," I say. **

This time, Peeta's the one to interrupt. "How do you know that for sure?"

"I just do," Katniss says.

**"I might. If I didn't live here," says Gale**.

"But you do," says Finnick.

**"But you do," I say, irritated**.

Finnick laughs.

**"Forget it," he snaps back. **

** The conversation feels all wrong. Leave? How could I leave Prim, who is the only person in the world I'm certain I love?**

"That's quite touching," says Effie.

** And Gale is devoted to his family. We can't leave, so why bother talking about it? And even if we did…even if we did…where did this stuff about having kids come from? There's never been anything romantic between Gale and me. **

Peeta smiles at this. He's never been sure about Katniss and Gale's relationship, because they're always hanging around each other. He tries to hide his smile when he feels Gale's glower on him, but can't.

** When we met, I was a skinny twelve-year-old, and although he was only two years older, he already looked like a man. It took a long time for us to even become friends, to stop haggling over every trade and begin helping each other out. **

**Besides, if he wants kids, Gale won't have any trouble finding a wife. He's good-looking, he's strong enough to handle the work in the mines, and he can hunt. You can tell by the way the girls whisper about him when he walks by in school that they want him. It makes me jealous but not for the reason people would think. Good hunting partners are hard to find. **

** "What do you want to do?" I ask. We can hunt, fish, or gather. **

"Hunting is illegal," Effie says. "You don't seem to be very concerned about being a good citizen."

"Effie, shut up."

"How rude," Effie says. "You know, Haymitch, it's not a surprise you don't have a girlfriend with your lack of manners."

"Alright," Haymitch says. "This isn't funny anymore. Where's the alcohol?"

**"Let's fish at the lake. We can leave our poles and gather in the woods. Get something nice for tonight," he says. **

**Tonight. After the reaping, everyone is supposed to celebrate. And a lot of people do, out of relief that their children have been spared for another year. But at least two families will pull their shutters, lock their doors, and try to figure out how they will survive the painful weeks to come.**

Haymitch, Johanna, and Finnick bow their heads and wonder what it was like for their families when they were reaped.

Haymitch thinks of how he's never managed to bring a single kid home to their family.

Johanna thinks about how last year, she was so close to bringing home the boy tribute, Braxton, but he was knifed in the back by his ally even though the boys had agreed to stick together until the final six. That boy had what it took to win, but he was betrayed.

Finnick closes his eyes for a brief moment and thinks of Annie, wondering why she isn't here, thinking of the promise he made to her family to bring her home, thinking of how he cried when he did, but the Crestas weren't pleased that he hadn't managed to bring Annie back with her sanity.

**We make out well. The predators ignore us on a day when easier, tastier prey abounds. By late morning, we have a dozen fish, a bag of greens and, best of all, a gallon of strawberries. I found the patch a few years ago, but Gale had the idea to string mesh nets around it to keep out the animals. **

** On the way home, we swing by the Hob, the black market that operates in an abandoned warehouse that once held coal. When they came up with a more efficient system that transported the coal directly from the mines to the trains, the Hob gradually took over the space. Most businesses are closed by this time on reaping day, but the black market's still fairly busy. **

** We easily trade six of the fish for good bread, the other two for salt. Greasy Sae, the bony old woman who sells bowls of hot soup from a large kettle, takes half the greens off our hands in exchange for a couple of chunks of paraffin. We might do a tad better elsewhere, but we make an effort to keep on good terms with Greasy Sae. She's the only one who can consistently be counted on to buy wild dog. **

** We don't hunt them on purpose, but if you're attacked and you take out a dog or two, well, meat is meat. "Once it's in the soup, I'll call it beef," Greasy Sae says with a wink. No one in the Seam would turn up their nose at a good leg of wild dog, but the Peacekeepers who come to the Hob can afford to be a little choosier. **

**When we finish our business at the market, we go to the back door of the mayor's house to sell half the strawberries, knowing he has a particular fondness for them and can afford our price. The mayor's daughter, Madge, opens the door.**

"Oh, great," Gale says and rolls his eyes. "Just who I wanted to see."

"What's wrong with Madge?" Katniss asks, even though she knows.

"Nothing, nothing," Gale says. "It's just frustrating that some people get to skirt by without actually having to worry about being reaped."

As he says this, he looks directly at Peeta.

"You think I don't worry?" Peeta asks.

"I didn't say that," Gale says. "All I'm saying is that you don't have to worry as much as the rest of us. Do you have any idea how many times my name's in there? How many times Katniss's name is in there?"

"You're not being fair," Katniss says. "It's not his fault."

"Besides," Johanna says, "all it takes is one slip. My name was only in there six times."

"Mine was in there three," Finnick says.

They look at Haymitch, waiting for his confession but he rolls his eyes. "This isn't sharing hour. Let's get on with the story."

**She's in my year at school. Being the mayor's daughter, you'd expect her to be a snob, but she's all right. She just keeps to herself. Like me. Since neither of us really has a group of friends, we seem to end up together a lot at school. Eating lunch, sitting next to each other at assemblies, partnering for sports activities. We rarely talk, which suits us both just fine. **

**Today her drab school outfit has been replaced by an expensive white dress, and her blonde hair is done up with a pink ribbon. Reaping clothes.**

** "Pretty dress," says Gale. **

**Madge shoots him a look, trying to see if it's a genuine compliment or if he's just being ironic. It **_**is**_** a pretty dress, but she would never be wearing it ordinarily. She presses her lips together and then smiles. "Well, if I end up going to the Capitol, I want to look nice, don't I?" **

"See," Effie says, "that's a girl who understands her manners."

** Now it's Gale's turn to be confused. Does she mean it? Or is she messing with him? I'm guessing the second. "You won't be going to the Capitol," says Gale coolly. His eyes land on a small, circular pin that adorns her dress. Real gold. Beautifully crafted. It could keep a family in bread for months. "What can you have? Five entries? I had six when I was just twelve years old." **

"Yeah," Johanna says, rolling her eyes. "We get it. Life's not fair. Are we going to have to listen to this for a while? Because trust me, kid, life's never fair."

**"That's not her fault," I say. **

** "No, it's no one's fault. Just the way it is," says Gale. **

** Madge's face has become closed off. She puts the money for the berries in my hand. "Good luck, Katniss." **

** "You, too," I say, and the door closes. We walk toward the Seam in silence. I don't like that Gale took a dig at Madge, but he's right, of course. The reaping system is unfair, with the poor getting the worst of it. You become eligible for the reaping the day you turn twelve. That year, your name is entered once. At thirteen, twice. And so on and so on until you reach the age of eighteen, the final year of eligibility, when your name goes into the pool seven times. That's true for every citizen in all twelve districts in the entire country of Panem. **

"See," Effie says. "That's very fair."

Haymitch snorts again.

** But here's the catch. Say you are poor and starving as we were. You can opt to add your name more times in exchange for tesserae. Each tessera is worth a meager year's supply of grain and oil for one person. You may do this for each of your family members as well. So, at the age of twelve, I had my name entered four times. Once, because I had to, and three times for tesserae for grain and oil for myself, Prim, and my mother. In fact, every year I have needed to do this. And the entries are cumulative. So now, at the age of sixteen, my name will be in the reaping twenty times. **

"Ouch," Finnick says.

Katniss narrows her eyes, thinking. _Wait a minute._

**Gale, who is eighteen and has been either helping or single-handedly feeding a family of five for seven years, will have his name in forty-two times. **

"Well, that's forty-two chances to honor Panem," Effie says.

"Not everyone wants to honor Panem," Johanna says.

Gale doesn't seem bothered by this comment, busy looking at Katniss. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Catnip?"

Katniss nods. "Exactly. It has to be. The only thing that makes sense."

"So, then, this is…"

"Yes, has to be. No other way."

Peeta clears his throat. "What are you two talking about?"

Katniss waits for Gale to explain, but he doesn't so she speaks up. "That's how many we have this year. This year. This is going to be happening in three weeks."

Cinna watches the group take in the information, realizing they don't have it figured completely out yet but he's certain he does. _We're hearing her story…the day of the reaping…this is going to be my tribute. _And he immediately begins to determine what to dress her in.

**You can see why someone like Madge, who has never been at risk of needing a tessera, can set him off. The chance of her name being drawn is very slim compared to those of us who live in the Seam. Not impossible, but slim. And even though the rules were set up by the Capitol, not the districts, certainly not Madge's family, it's hard not to resent those who don't have to sign up for tesserae.**

Peeta looks at Katniss, who is busy staring at her feet with her cheeks blushing, and wonders why she didn't come back to the bakery if she really needed food. He would have given it to her. She was worth a beating from his mother.

**Gale knows his anger at Madge is misdirected. On other days, deep in the woods, I've listened to him rant about how the tesserae are just another tool to cause misery in our district. A way to plant hatred between the starving workers of the Seam and those who can generally count on supper and thereby ensure we will never trust one another. **

**"It's to the Capitol's advantage to have us divided among ourselves," he might say if there were no ears to hear but mine. If it wasn't reaping day. If a girl with a gold pin and no tesserae had not made what I'm sure she thought was a harmless comment. **

Haymitch nods. "You're right, kid."

**As we walk, I glance over at Gale's face, still smoldering underneath his stony expression**. **His rages seem pointless to me, although I never say so. It's not that I don't agree with him. I do. But what good is yelling about the Capitol in the middle of the woods? **

Gale stares at Katniss for a moment. _Doesn't she get it? Doesn't she care that this is completely unjust, that we should do something about it? I only wish I knew what to do._

**It doesn't change anything. It doesn't make things fair. It doesn't fill our stomachs. In fact, it scares off the nearby game. I let him yell though. Better he does it in the woods than in the district. **

"But, Katniss," Gale says, "if we don't say anything about it, we're excusing it. We're enabling it. There could be other people out there who feel the same way I do. It's not right for them to treat us this way."

"But yelling won't do anything about that," Johanna says. "You want to do something. Do something, but don't get yourself caught in the mean time."

"Be careful, Johanna," Finnick says. "We still don't know if this room is being monitored."

**Gale and I divide our spoils, leaving two fish, a couple of loaves of good bread, greens, a quart of strawberries, salt, paraffin, and a bit of money for each. **

**"See you in the square," I say.**

** "Wear something pretty," he says flatly. **

**At home, I find my mother and sister are ready to go. My mother wears a fine dress from her apothecary days. Prim is in my first reaping outfit, a skirt and ruffled blouse. It's a bit big on her, but my mother has made it stay with pins. Even so, she's having trouble keeping the blouse tucked in at the back. **

**A tub of warm water waits for me. **

"Baths are so filthy," Effie says. "You should shower for such a big day."

"We don't have a shower," Katniss says. "No one in the Seam does."

** I scrub off the dirt and sweat from the woods and even wash my hair. To my surprise, my mother has laid out one of her own lovely dresses for me. A soft blue thing with matching shoes. **

**"Are you sure?" I ask. I'm trying to get past rejecting offers of help from her. For a while, I was so angry, I wouldn't allow her to do anything for me. And this is something special. Her clothes from her past are very precious to her. **

**"Of course. Let's put your hair up, too," she says. I let her towel-dry it and braid it up on my head. I can hardly recognize myself in the cracked mirror that leans against the wall. **

** "You look beautiful," says Prim in a hushed voice.**

"You always look beautiful, Katniss," Prim says.

Katniss flushes. "Thanks, Prim."

**"And nothing like myself," I say. I hug her, because I know these next few hours will be terrible for her. Her first reaping. She's about as safe as you can get, since she's only entered once. I wouldn't let her take out any tesserae. But she's worried about me. That the unthinkable might happen. **

** "Nothing's going to happen," Katniss says quietly to Prim. "You'll be fine. Your name's only in there once."**

Finnick watches the exchange, relieved he'll never have to face being reaped again but saddened for Prim. Even though he was raised in a Career district, he hadn't planned on volunteering until he was eighteen and still, that had been a terrifying thought on its own.

"Sometimes, once is all it takes," Johanna says.

"Stop it," Katniss says, not wanting Johanna to scare Prim.

Johanna rolls her eyes. "You can't protect her forever."

Katniss looks away. _I can try._

**I protect Prim in every way I can, but I'm powerless against the reaping. The anguish I always feel when she's in pain wells up in my chest and threatens to register on my face. I notice her blouse has pulled out of her skirt in the back again and force myself to stay calm. "Tuck your tail in, little duck," I say, smoothing the blouse back in place. **

** Prim giggles and gives me a small "Quack."**

**"Quack yourself," I say with a light laugh. The kind only Prim can draw out of me. "Come on, let's eat," I say and plant a quick kiss on the top of her head.**

Prim moves closer, and Katniss puts an arm around here and places a kiss on top of Prim's head. Johanna watches them bitterly, wishing her sister was still alive. Peeta wonders what it's like to have a close relationship with a sibling. He doesn't hate his, but they don't ever really talk.

**The fish and greens are already cooking in a stew, but that will be for supper. We decide to save the strawberries and bakery bread for this evening's meal, to make it special we say. Instead we drink milk from Prim's goat, Lady, and eat the rough bread made from the tessera grain, although no one has much appetite anyway.**

**At one o'clock, we head for the square. Attendance is mandatory unless you are on death's door. This evening, officials will come around and check to see if this is the case. If not, you'll be imprisoned. **

Effie frowns, not sure why people wouldn't want to come.

**It's too bad, really, that they hold the reaping in the square—one of the few places in District 12 that can be pleasant. The square's surrounded by shops, and on public market days, especially if there's good weather, it has a holiday feel to it. But today, despite the bright banners hanging on the buildings, there's an air of grimness. The camera crews, perched like buzzards on rooftops, only add to the effect. **

**People file in silently and sign in. The reaping is a good opportunity for the Capitol to keep tabs on the population as well. Twelve-through eighteen-year-olds are herded into roped areas marked off by ages, the oldest in the front, the young ones, like Prim, toward the back. **

"Like cattle," Johanna spits out.

**Family members line up around the perimeter, holding tightly to one another's hands. But there are others, too, who have no one they love at stake, or who no longer care, who slip among the crowd, taking bets on the two kids whose names will be drawn. Odds are given on their ages, whether they're Seam or merchant, if they will break down and weep. Most refuse dealing with the racketeers but carefully, carefully. These same people tend to be informers, and who hasn't broken the law? I could be shot on a daily basis for hunting, but the appetites of those in charge protect me. Not everyone can claim the same. **

**Anyway, Gale and I agree that if we have to choose between dying of hunger and a bullet in the head, the bullet would be much quicker. **

**The space gets tighter, more claustrophobic as people arrive. The square's quite large, but not enough to hold District 12's population of about eight thousand. Latecomers are directed to the adjacent streets, where they can watch the event on screens as it's televised live by the state. **

**I find myself standing in a clump of sixteens from the Seam. We all exchange terse nods then focus our attention on the temporary stage that is set up before the Justice Building. It holds three chairs, a podium, and two large glass balls, one for the boys and one for the girls. I stare at the paper slips in the girls' ball. Twenty of them have Katniss Everdeen written on them in careful handwriting. **

Katniss begins to find it hard to breathe. This is the part that comes around once each year that makes her face the question of her own mortality, to face the fact that she is vulnerable and not as in control as she would like to be.

** Two of the three chairs fill with Madge's father, Mayor Undersee, who's a tall, balding man, and Effie Trinket, District 12's escort, fresh from the Capitol with her scary white grin-**

"My grin is not scary," Effie says with a huff, "and it's rude to think so."

**-pinkish hair, and spring green suit. They murmur to each other and then look with concern at the empty seat. **

"I suppose I'm not there," Haymitch says. "Such a surprise, I'm sure."

"Hopefully you won't urinate this year," Effie says.

"That's gross," Finnick says as he laughs. "Even for you, Haymitch."

"I got to keep people on their toes. The Capitol always wants a show, so that's what I give 'em."

**Just as the town clock strikes two, the mayor steps up to the podium and begins to read. It's the same story every year.**

"War, terrible war," everyone but Effie and Cinna chant.

**He tells of the history of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes of a place that was once called North America. He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained. **

**The result was Panem, a shining Capitol-**

Gale pretends to vomit.

**-ringed by thirteen districts, which brought peace and prosperity to its citizens. Then came the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated. The Treaty of Treason gave us the new laws to guarantee peace and, as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated, it gave us the Hunger Games. **

"I've never really understood that logic," Finnick says. "Peace through violence."

Cinna shakes his head. "Passivity through violence."

What Katniss doesn't understand is why people actually continue to have children because if everyone stopped, there'd be no more children to put in the Hunger Games. Of course, there'd be massive population problems and Panem would either find a way to force people to have children or would slightly alter the rules of the Hunger Games, but still. Why bother with the heartache of having your child potentially ripped away from you?

"You know what irritates me?" Johanna asks.

"Everything?" Finnick responds, and laughs when Johanna socks him in the shoulder.

"Okay, so there are plenty of poor people in most districts," Johanna says. "Televising the Hunger Games probably isn't cheap. Instead of that, Panem could afford to keep the hunger rate down, but no, let's just make everyone starve. Can't rebel if everyone's starving!"

Gale nods, seeing a bit of good in this girl. "All they care about is oppressing the Districts."

"This kind of talk is not good," Effie says, looking around nervously. "It's also not true."

Amongst all this, Peeta notices Haymitch watching Katniss closely. Somehow, this confirms the thought that's been brewing in the back of his head. _Katniss is going into the Hunger Games. She has to be. Why else would the story be in her perspective? What am I going to do? I have to tell her how I feel before it's too late. She can win, but I want her to know before she leaves that I'm in love with her._

**The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins. **

**Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch—this is the Capitol's way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion. Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. "Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there's nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen." **

** To make it humiliating as well as torturous, the Capitol requires us to treat the Hunger Games as a festivity, a sporting event pitting every district against the others. The last tribute alive receives a life of ease back home, and their district will be showered with prizes, largely consisting of food. All year, the Capitol will show the winning district gifts of grain and oil and even delicacies like sugar while the rest of us battle starvation. **

**"It is both a time for repentance and a time for thanks," intones the mayor. **

** Then he reads the list of past District 12 victors. In seventy-four years, we have had exactly two. Only one is still alive. Haymitch Abernathy, a paunchy, middle-aged man, who at this moment appears hollering something unintelligible, staggers onto the stage, and falls into the third chair. **

Haymitch stands up and takes a bow.

**He's drunk. Very. The crowd responds with its token applause, but he's confused and tries to give Effie Trinket a big hug, which she barely manages to fend off. **

This sends a burst of laughter around the room. Effie, miffed, reads on.

_Now I have the perfect weapon to terrify her_, Haymitch thinks.

**The mayor looks distressed. Since all of this is being televised, right now District 12 is the laughingstock of Panem, and he knows it. He quickly tries to pull the attention back to the reaping by introducing Effie Trinket.**

** Bright and bubbly as ever, Effie Trinket trots to the podium and gives her signature, "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" Her pink hair must be a wig because her curls have shifted slightly off-center since her encounter with Haymitch. She goes on a bit about what an honor it is to be here, although everyone knows she's just aching to get bumped up to a better district where they have proper victors, not drunks who molest you in front of the entire nation.**

"Well, no one wants that to happen to them," Effie mutters.

"Working on a lower district is still an honor," Cinna says.

"Easy for you to say, Cinna," Effie says. "I'm sure you've been placed as a stylist for District One or Two with all your talent."

"They wanted to place me there," Cinna says, "but I requested Twelve."

Katniss smiles, liking him more by the second.

"But Cinna, why?" Effie asks. Then her eyes widen and she's trying to convince Cinna to change his mind. "Haymitch is District Twelve's mentor, you know_…Haymitch_."

**Through the crowd, I spot Gale looking back at me with a ghost of a smile. As reapings go, this one at least has a slight entertainment factor. But suddenly I am thinking of Gale and his forty-two names in that big glass ball and how the odds are not in his favor. Not compared to a lot of the boys. And maybe he's thinking the same thing about me because his face darkens and he turns away.**

"**But there are still thousands of slips," I wish I could whisper to him. **

** It's time for the drawing. Effie Trinket says as she always does, "Ladies first!" **

"This is so exciting," Effie says once again.

**-and crosses to the glass ball with the girls' names. She reaches in, digs her hand deep into the ball, and pulls out a slip of paper. The crowd draws in a collective breath and then you can hear a pin drop, and I'm feeling nauseous and so desperately hoping that it's not me, that it's not me, that it's not me. **

"It's gonna be you," Johanna says, not unkindly.

Katniss notices Finnick and Haymitch giving her sympathetic looks, and she looks away. _What's my family going to do if I'm reaped? They can't survive without me._

**Effie Trinket crosses back to the podium, smoothes the slip of paper, and reads out the name in a clear voice. And it's not me. **

The room lets out a collective breath, and Effie titters a bit before reading on.

**It's Primrose Everdeen.**

* * *

A/N: Okay, so hopefully the first chapter wasn't too boring. Beginnings are always the worse for me personally. Reviews are appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary**: Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Prim, Haymitch, Effie, Cinna, Finnick, and Johanna read _The Hunger Games_.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own _The Hunger Games._

**A/N**: Thanks so much for the reviews! This chapter's a bit shorter because the real book chapter is shorter than the first one.

* * *

For a moment, Katniss forgets how to breathe. The whole room has gone quiet with the exception of Effie and Prim, who has dissolved against Katniss's side and begun to cry.

"Does anyone else want to read?" Effie asks. "My throat's getting dry."

"I'll read," Cinna says but when he takes the book in his hand, he places it over his lap and waits.

"Prim," Katniss says, "Prim, you're okay. It's going to be okay."

_ I can't let Prim die. She'll have no chance in the Games. I can't send her off to die. I…I know what I'll have to do._

"That's terrible," Finnick says kindly. "I'm sorry, Prim."

"You'll be fine, Prim," Gale says. "You're small. You can hide. We've got three weeks to train before this happens."

"I don't understand," Effie says, smile slipping off her face. "You should be excited, Primrose!"

"Aw, shut it, Trinket," Haymitch says before turning to Prim. "You got any skills, girl?"

Prim shakes her head.

"That's not true," Katniss says, although she's determined not to let Prim go into the arena. "You can heal."

"The arena isn't a place where healing is a good thing," Johanna says quietly. "People are supposed to die in the arena."

"But if she gets a good alliance," Finnick says, "that could be helpful."

Gale examines Katniss, knowing she won't let Prim go in. "We should just keep reading."

Peeta frowns and thinks, _Prim shouldn't have to go into the arena. She's only twelve. I'll volunteer and bring Prim back home to Katniss. It would devastate Katniss if Prim died. _

Katniss lets out a soft cough, not wanting to cry. Fear laces around her heart. _If I go into the arena, I won't make it out. No one from Twelve ever does, but I can't let that fear stop me. I want Prim to live a long, happy life. I'll do anything to make sure she does. _

"Could you read, Cinna?" Katniss asks.

He nods.

**One time, when I was in a blind in a tree, waiting motionless for game to wander by, I dozed off and fell ten feet to the ground, landing on my back. It was as if the impact had knocked every wisp of air from my lungs, and I lay there struggling to inhale, to exhale, to do anything. **

** That's how I feel now, trying to remember how to breathe, unable to speak, totally stunned as the name bounces around the inside of my skull. Someone is gripping my arm, a boy from the Seam, and I think maybe I started to fall and he caught me. **

** There must have been some mistake. This can't be happening. Prim was one slip of paper in thousands! Her chances of being chosen so remote that I'd not even bothered to worry about her. Hadn't I done everything? Taken the tesserae, refused to let her do the same? One slip. One slip in thousands. The odds had been entirely in her favor. But it hadn't mattered. **

Katniss focuses on not crying.

"One slip is all it takes," Johanna says.

"You're not helping," Katniss snaps.

"You said it wouldn't be me," Prim says softly. "You promised."

To this, Katniss has no response.

**Somewhere far away, I can hear the crowd murmuring unhappily as they always do when a twelve-year-old gets chosen because no one thinks this is fair. And then I see her, the blood drained from her face, hands clenched in fists at her sides, walking with stiff, small steps up toward the stage, passing me, and I see the back of her blouse has become untucked and hangs out over her skirt. It's this detail, the untucked blouse forming a ducktail, that brings me back to myself. **

** "Prim!" The strangled cry comes out of my throat, and my muscles begin to move again. "Prim!" I don't need to shove through the crowd. The other kids make way immediately allowing me a straight path to the stage. I reach her just as she is about to mount the steps. With one sweep of my arm, I push her behind me. **

"That's very dangerous," Effie says. "The Peacekeepers won't like that."

Katniss thinks, _This must be the moment._

Gale sighs, and Peeta narrows his eyes as the realization hits him.

** "I volunteer!" I gasp. "I volunteer as tribute!" **

Johanna groans and places her hands in her hands.

Finnick offers Katniss a tight-lipped smile.

"Look, sweetheart," Haymitch says, "I'm sure you love your sister very much, but you don't know what you're getting yourself into."

"What else could she do?" Gale asks, standing up for his best friend. "I think it was very brave of her."

Peeta nods sadly. "Me too."

Cinna waits to read on, thinking in his mind about how courageous this girl is. Suddenly, he's determined to give her the best possible chance to gain sponsors and consequently come home. _I'm going to help this girl as much as I possibly can. But what can I do? The coal idea is so tired..._

"Why would you do this, Katniss?" Prim whispers. "I don't want to lose you."

**There's some confusion on the stage.** **District 12 hasn't had a volunteer in decades and the protocol has become rusty. The rule is that once a tribute's name has been pulled from the ball, another eligible boy, if a boy's name has been read, or girl, if a girl's name has been read, can step forward to take his or her place. In some districts, in which winning the reaping is such a great honor**-

"The bliss of ignorance," Finnick says.

**-people are eager to risk their lives, the volunteering is complicated. But in District 12, where the word tribute is pretty much synonymous with the word corpse**-

Johanna laughs.

**-volunteers are all but extinct. **

** "Lovely!" says Effie Trinket. "But I believe there's a small matter of introducing the reaping winner and then asking for volunteers, and if one does come forth then we, um…" she trails off, unsure herself. **

** "What does it matter?" says the mayor. He's looking at me with a pained expression on his face. He doesn't know me really, but there's a faint recognition there. I am the girl who brings the strawberries. The girl his daughter might have spoken of on occasion. The girl who five years ago stood huddled with her mother and sister, as he presented her, the oldest child, with a medal of valor. A medal for her father, vaporized in the mines. **

"You got a medal for that?" Johanna asks.

Katniss nods.

"That's ridiculous," Johanna says. "You didn't do anything. If anything, it seems like it'd be rubbing your face in the fact that your father died."

Katniss shrugs, not admitting that the memory is hard to make out because of how lost she was after her father died.

**Does he remember that? "What does it matter?" he repeats gruffly. "Let her come forward." **

**Prim is screaming hysterically behind me. She's wrapped her skinny arms around me like a vice. "No, Katniss! No! You can't go!" **

Prim lets out a sob beside Katniss and buries her head in Katniss's shoulder.

**"Prim, let go," I say harshly, because this is upsetting me and I don't want to cry. When they televise the replay of the reapings tonight, everyone will make note of my tears, and I'll be marked as an easy target. A weakling.**

"Hey," Johanna says, "that strategy does work for some people."

**I will give no one that satisfaction. "Let go!" **

** I can feel someone pulling her from my back. I turn and see Gale has lifted Prim off the ground and she's thrashing in his arms. "Up you go, Catnip," he says, in a voice he's fighting to keep steady, and then he carries Prim off toward my mother. I steel myself and climb the steps. **

Gale glances down to his lap. _I can't volunteer. I have to stay and take care of our families. I hope she knows that I would if we didn't have so many kids._

**"Well, bravo!" gushes Effie Trinket.** "**That's the spirit of the Games!" She's pleased to finally have a district with a little action going on in it. "What's your name?"**

** I swallow hard. "Katniss Everdeen," I say. "I bet my buttons that was your sister. Don't want her to steal all the glory, do we? Come on, everybody! Let's give a big round of applause to our newest tribute!" trills Effie Trinket. **

"Y'know, Trinket," Haymitch says. "Sometimes, you're real clueless."

Effie's mouth drops. "Well, she deserves applause."

**To the everlasting credit of the people of District 12, not one person claps.** **Not even the ones holding betting slips, the ones who are usually beyond caring. Possibly because they know me from the Hob, or knew my father, or have encountered Prim, who no one can help loving. So instead of acknowledging applause, I stand there unmoving while they take part in the boldest form of dissent they can manage. Silence. Which says we do not agree. We do not condone. All of this is wrong. **

"Wow," Finnick says. "Your whole district? That sounds like a huge honor there. I mean, in Four, if no one clapped for you, you'd be counting down the minutes until your life ends in the Games."

Peeta closes his eyes for a moment. _This isn't supposed to happen. I was supposed to have a lifetime to tell her how I feel, to tell her what she means to me, to at least let her know who I am. I can't let her leave without letting her know that I love her, but I'm not going to tell her right now in front of all these people. I'll wait._

**Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me. But a shift has occurred since I stepped up to take Prim's place, and now it seems I have become someone precious. At first one, then another, then almost every member of the crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to me. It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love. **

Katniss narrows her eyes, afraid that she's going to cry over something that hasn't even happened yet.

Gale pats her hand softly. "Alright there, Catnip?"

Katniss only nods.

** Now I am truly in danger of crying, but fortunately Haymitch chooses this time to come staggering across the stage to congratulate me. **

"Oh no," says Finnick. "This can't be good."

Johanna smirks. "But it'll be entertaining."

"You mean disgusting," Effie says.

**"Look at her. Look at this one!" he hollers, throwing an arm around my shoulders. He's surprisingly strong for such a wreck.** **"I like her!" His breath reeks of liquor and it's been a long time since he's bathed. "Lots of…" He can't think of the word for a while. "Spunk!" he says triumphantly. "More than you!" he releases me and starts for the front of the stage. "More than you!" he shouts, pointing directly into a camera.**

**Is he addressing the audience or is he so drunk he might actually be taunting the Capitol? **

"_Haymitch_," Finnick says, sounding like a child lecturing his father even as he can't hide his smile.

"I think it's amazing," Johanna says. "Good work, Haymitch."

"I can't control what I do when I'm drunk," Haymitch says, but he doesn't look even remotely apologetic.

**I'll never know because just as he's opening his mouth to continue, Haymitch plummets off the stage and knocks himself unconscious. **

**He's disgusting, but I'm grateful. With every camera gleefully trained on him, I have just enough time to release the small, choked sound in my throat and compose myself. I put my hands behind my back and stare into the distance. I can see the hills I climbed this morning with Gale. For a moment, I yearn for something…the idea of us leaving the district…making our way in the woods…but I know I was right about not running off. Because who else would have volunteered for Prim? **

Prim's eyes water and she mutters, "Thank you."

Katniss holds her tighter and says, "Anything for you, little duck. Anything for you."

**Haymitch is whisked away on a stretcher, and Effie Trinket is trying to get the ball rolling again.** **"What an exciting day!" she warbles as she attempts to straighten her wig, which has listed severely to the right. "But more excitement to come! It's time to choose our boy tribute!" Clearly hoping to contain her tenuous hair situation, she plants one hand on her head as she crosses to the ball that contains the boys' names and grabs the first slip she encounters. She zips back to the podium, and I don't even have time to wish for Gale's safety when she's reading the name. "Peeta Mellark." **

Silence.

Gale lets out a breath of air, knowing no one would have volunteered for him and that he needs to stay back in Twelve.

Peeta stares at the white wall opposite him. _Well, I guess I don't need to be concerned about if I should volunteer or not._ He closes his eyes and tries to fight tears. _Now, it's real. I'll never ever have the chance to be with Katniss_.

"This is crap," Finnick says. "Who puts us in a room where we'll inevitably get to know both of them and then makes us root for one or the other to live?"

Haymitch gives Peeta a sympathetic smile. _He looks brawny, and she's got a fighting spirit. Maybe I could bring…No, I can't think like that. Don't get hopeful, Haymitch._

"The other tribute from my district was an asshole," Johanna says.

Katniss isn't sure if that's supposed to make her feel better, but it doesn't.

**Peeta Mellark! **

_**Oh, no**_**, I think. **_**Not him**_**. Because I recognize this name, although I have never spoken directly to its owner. Peeta Mellark.**

** No, the odds are not in my favor today. I watch him as he makes his way toward the stage. Medium height, stocky build, ashy blond hair that falls in waves over his forehead. The shock of the moment is registering on his face, you can see his struggle to remain emotionless, but his blue eyes show the alarm I've seen so often in prey**.

Peeta forces a smile. "Thanks for that."

**Yet he climbs steadily onto the stage and takes his place. **

**Effie Trinket asks for volunteers, but no one steps forward. He has two older brothers, I know, I've seen them in the bakery, but one is probably too old now to volunteer and the other won't. This is standard. Family devotion only goes so far for most people on reaping day. What I did was the radical thing. **

**The mayor begins to read the long, dull Treaty of Treason as he does every year at this point—it's required—but I'm not listening to a word. **

_**Why him?**_** I think. Then I try to convince myself it doesn't matter. Peeta Mellark and I are not friends. Not even neighbors. We don't speak. Our only real interaction happened years ago. He's probably forgotten it. But I haven't and I know I never will… **

Peeta tries to meet Katniss's eye, but her lids are closed. He wants to tell her that he hasn't forgotten, that he couldn't forget that. _So, she knows who I am after all._

Katniss grits her teeth. _Having strangers hear about my weakest moment in life isn't exactly the best way to spend my day._

I**t was during the worst time. My father had been killed in the mine accident three months earlier in the bitterest January anyone could remember. The numbness of his loss had passed, and the pain would hit me out of nowhere, doubling me over, racking my body with sobs. Where are you? I would cry out in my mind. Where have you gone? Of course, there was never any answer. **

Johanna glances at the girl emotionlessly, thinking of how she found her father dead from "natural causes", although she still suspects the Capitol poisoned him somehow. Deep down inside of her that pain had never left even though it had been five years since her father had passed.

**The district had given us a small amount of money as compensation for his death, enough to cover one month of grieving at which time my mother would be expected to get a job. Only she didn't. **

Prim narrows her eyebrows. She was only seven when their father passed away and even at twelve, it was still confusing for her to understand what had happened after that. She just knew her mother had to get up and get working. That's what Katniss had said, but their mother hadn't moved. Katniss had just started bringing food home at some point, but Prim had never questioned the logistics behind it.

**She didn't do anything but sit propped up in a chair or, more often, huddled under the blankets on her bed, eyes fixed on some point in the distance. Once in a while, she'd stir, get up as if moved by some urgent purpose, only to then collapse back into stillness. No amount of pleading from Prim seemed to affect her. **

**I was terrified. I suppose now that my mother was locked in some dark world of sadness, but at the time, all I knew was that I had lost not only a father, but a mother as well. At eleven years old, with Prim just seven, I took over as head of the family.**

Cinna stops reading, examining Katniss. _This girl is a survivor. She could have a shot at winning. _He starts reading again before anyone can comment.

Katniss frowns once Cinna looks away. _He's probably judging me because of it. I doubt a Capitol citizen could understand._

**There was no choice. I bought our food at the market and cooked it as best I could and tried to keep Prim and myself looking presentable. Because if it had become known that my mother could no longer care for us, the district would have taken us away from her and placed us in the community home.** **I'd grown up seeing those home kids at school. The sadness, the marks of angry hands on their faces, the hopelessness that curled their shoulders forward. I could never let that happen to Prim. Sweet, tiny Prim who cried when I cried before she even knew the reason, who brushed and plaited my mother's hair before we left for school, who still polished my father's shaving mirror each night because he'd hated the layer of coal dust that settled on everything in the Seam. The community home would crush her like a bug. So I kept our predicament a secret. **

_You kept the secret well_, Peeta thinks, _but anyone would watched you could have seen you were struggling. I wanted to help you, but I didn't know how. I didn't know what you needed._

**But the money ran out and we were slowly starving to death**. **There's no other way to put it. I kept telling myself if I could only hold out until May, just May 8th, I would turn twelve and be able to sign up for the tesserae and get that precious grain and oil to feed us. **

_Once again_, Gale thinks, _the Capitol ropes the poor into the miserable act of taking tesserae and increasing chances at being reaped. But Prim didn't have more than one slip, and Peeta couldn't have needed to take tesserae. He probably only had five slips in there._

**Only there were still several weeks to go. We could well be dead by then**.

**Starvation's not an uncommon fate in District 12. Who hasn't seen the victims? Older people who can't work. Children from a family with too many to feed. Those injured in the mines. Straggling through the streets. And one day, you come upon them sitting motionless against a wall or lying in the Meadow, you hear the wails from a house, and the Peacekeepers are called in to retrieve the body. Starvation is never the cause of death officially. **

"Of course not," Johanna says and rolls her eyes.

**It's always the flu, or exposure, or pneumonia. But that fools no one.**

**On the afternoon of my encounter with Peeta Mellark, the rain was falling in relentless icy sheets. I had been in town, trying to trade some threadbare old baby clothes of Prim's in the public market, but there were no takers. Although I had been to the Hob on several occasions with my father, I was too frightened to venture into that rough, gritty place alone. **

**The rain had soaked through my father's hunting jacket, leaving me chilled to the bone. For three days, we'd had nothing but boiled water with some old dried mint leaves I'd found in the back of a cupboard. By the time the market closed, I was shaking so hard I dropped my bundle of baby clothes in a mud puddle. I didn't pick it up for fear I would keel over and be unable to regain my feet. **

** Besides, no one wanted those clothes. I couldn't go home. Because at home was my mother with her dead eyes and my little sister, with her hollow cheeks and cracked lips. **

** I couldn't walk into that room with the smoky fire from the damp branches I had scavenged at the edge of the woods after the coal had run out, my hands empty of any hope. **

**I found myself stumbling along a muddy lane behind the shops that serve the wealthiest townspeople. The merchants live above their businesses, so I was essentially in their backyards. I remember the outlines of garden beds not yet planted for the spring, a goat or two in a pen, one sodden dog tied to a post, hunched defeated in the muck.**

**All forms of stealing are forbidden in District 12. Punishable by death. But it crossed my mind that there might be something in the trash bins, and those were fair game. **

"That's revolting," Effie says, gagging.

"Not everyone has their little fancy Capitol parties where they eat until they force themselves to be sick and then eat some more," Johanna says lightly. "If you ask me, that's more revolting than trash picking."

**Perhaps a bone at the butcher's or rotted vegetables at the grocer's, something no one but my family was desperate enough to eat. Unfortunately, the bins had just been emptied**.

**When I passed the baker's, the smell of fresh bread was so overwhelming I felt dizzy. The ovens were in the back, and a golden glow spilled out the open kitchen door. I stood mesmerized by the heat and the luscious scent until the rain interfered, running its icy fingers down my back, forcing me back to life. I lifted the lid to the baker's trash bin and found it spotlessly, heartlessly bare. **

** Suddenly a voice was screaming at me and I looked up to see the baker's wife, telling me to move on and did I want her to call the Peacekeepers and how sick she was of having those brats from the Seam pawing through her trash. **

"Ugh," Haymitch says. "Mrs. Mellark is a nasty bitch. No offense, Peeta."

Peeta shrugs.

"That's your mother?" Finnick asks. "Rough deal."

**The words were ugly and I had no defense. As I carefully replaced the lid and backed away, I noticed him, a boy with blond hair peering out from behind his mother's back. I'd seen him at school. He was in my year, but I didn't know his name. He stuck with the town kids, so how would I? **

**His mother went back into the bakery, grumbling, but he must have been watching me as I made my way behind the pen that held their pig and leaned against the far side of an old apple tree. The realization that I'd have nothing to take home had finally sunk in. My knees buckled and I slid down the tree trunk to its roots. It was too much. I was too sick and weak and tired, oh, so tired.**_** Let them call the Peacekeepers and take us to the community home, **_**I thought. **_**Or better yet, let me die right here in the rain. **_

**There was a clatter in the bakery and I heard the woman screaming again and the sound of a blow, and I vaguely wondered what was going on. Feet sloshed toward me through the mud and I thought, **_**It's her. She's coming to drive me away with a stick.**_** But it wasn't her. It was the boy. In his arms, he carried two large loaves of bread that must have fallen into the fire because the crusts were scorched black. **

** His mother was yelling, "Feed it to the pig, you stupid creature! Why not? No one decent will buy burned bread!"**

"Did I mention your mother's a bitch?" Haymitch asks.

**He began to tear off chunks from the burned parts and toss them into the trough, and the front bakery bell rung and the mother disappeared to help a customer. The boy never even glanced my way, but I was watching him. Because of the bread, because of the red weal that stood out on his cheekbone. **

Peeta glances down, ashamed that his secret is being revealed to all of these people.

**What had she hit him with? **

Gale frowns. _I may have to provide for my family, but at least they appreciate me._

Finnick remembers how he coached a male tribute three years ago who was a victim of abuse. Finnick hadn't known about it until the tributes were in the arena. The boy was surrounded by Careers, the alliance at its end. They took their time beating him, had fun. At the end, the boy was delusional and cried out, "Father, please stop…Father…I'll catch the fish next…time."

Johanna pats Finnick's hand kindly. She knows that the boy from the 71st Hunger Games still bothers him.

"You don't deserve that, kid," Haymitch says. "Don't think that you do and if she tells you that you do, it's bullshit, you hear me?"

Peeta shrugs.

"I said, you hear me?"

He nods, but doesn't look very convinced.

Katniss has never liked the baker's wife but hates her now more than ever. The fact that Peeta actually believes it's warranted hurts her for some reason- for the reason that he saved her, but she could never save him.

_Poor Peeta_, Prim thinks. _He seems nice. He doesn't deserve that._

Cinna and Effie exchange a glance.

"Abuse isn't uncommon in the Capitol," Effie states softly.

Everyone blinks at her, and then looks at Cinna for confirmation.

"It's not," Cinna says. "Parents in the Capitol tend to treat children like trophies. The most fashionable, sociable, intelligent, beautiful children are desirable. If you shame your family…well, it's just the punishment there."

"That's terrible," Katniss says.

Cinna nods. "It is, but the Capitol isn't exactly kind."

"Cinna," Effie says, "how can you say that? They've given us so many opportunities."

Cinna glances down at the book. "But at what cost, Effie?"

No one answers, and he continues reading.

**My parents never hit us.** **I couldn't even imagine it. The boy took one look back to the bakery as if checking that the coast was clear, then, his attention back on the pig, he threw a loaf of bread in my direction**.

"Peeta!" Effie exclaims. "That was very kind of you."

**The second quickly followed, and he sloshed back to the bakery, closing the kitchen door tightly behind him. **

"You could have given them to her," Gale says.

"I think she would have hit him more if she knew what he was doing," Katniss says, not looking at Peeta. _This whole thing is humiliating._

Peeta smiles to himself at the fact that Katniss understood why he didn't give them to her directly. _If only she knew I burned them on purpose..._

**I stared at the loaves in disbelief**. **They were fine, perfect really, except for the burned areas. Did he mean for me to have them? He must have.** **Because there they were at my feet. Before anyone could witness what had happened I shoved the loaves up under my shirt, wrapped the hunting jacket tightly about me, and walked swiftly away. The heat of the bread burned into my skin, but I clutched it tighter, clinging to life. **

**By the time I reached home, the loaves had cooled somewhat, but the insides were still warm. When I dropped them on the table, Prim's hands reached to tear off a chunk- **

"Someone's eager," Finnick says with a smile.

** -but I made her sit, forced my mother to join us at the table, and poured warm tea. I scraped off the black stuff and sliced the bread. We ate an entire loaf, slice by slice. It was good hearty bread, filled with raisins and nuts. **

**I put my clothes to dry at the fire, crawled into bed, and fell into a dreamless sleep. It didn't occur to me until the next morning that the boy might have burned the bread on purpose. Might have dropped the loaves into the flames, knowing it meant being punished, and then delivered them to me. But I dismissed this. It must have been an accident. Why would he have done it? He didn't even know me. Still, just throwing me the bread was an enormous kindness that would have surely resulted in a beating if discovered. I couldn't explain his actions. **

Cinna pauses, curious. "Was it on purpose, Peeta?"

Katniss's breath hitches. The question she had always wanted to ask…someone had asked for her.

Everyone's attention is on Peeta.

"She was hungry," Peeta says. "I knew her from school, and…"

No one asks him to continue.

**We ate slices of bread for breakfast and headed to school. It was as if spring had come overnight.** **Warm sweet air. Fluffy clouds. At school, I passed the boy in the hall, his cheek had swelled up and his eye had blackened. **

Peeta winces, once again feeling eyes on him. It's not that he doesn't like people. He's good at socializing, but he just doesn't want people knowing this about him and thinking he's weak.

**He was with his friends and didn't acknowledge me in any way. But as I collected Prim and started for home that afternoon, I found him staring at me from across the school yard. Our eyes met for only a second, then he turned his head away. I dropped my gaze, embarrassed, and that's when I saw it. The first dandelion of the year. A bell went off in my head. I thought of the hours spent in the woods with my father and I knew how we were going to survive. **

Gale whispers to Katniss, "Why didn't you ever tell me about this?"

"I didn't think I needed to."

"We're best friends, Catnip. You could have told me."

Katniss shrugs. _I didn't want to._

**To this day, I can never shake the connection between this boy, Peeta Mellark, and the bread that gave me hope, and the dandelion that reminded me that I was not doomed**.

Effie sniffs and wipes her eyes.

"Are you crying, Trinket?" Haymitch asks.

"Yes, I am," Effie says. "It's just so moving."

**And more than once, I have turned in the school hallway and caught his eyes trained on me, only to quickly flit away**.

Cinna spotted the shine in Peeta's eye as he watched Katniss. _He loves her. He loves her, and he's going into the Games with her. _Cinna decided to keep the revelation to himself. It was Peeta's secret to share, not his.

**I feel like I owe him something, and I hate owing people. **

"You don't owe me anything," Peeta says.

**Maybe if I had thanked him at some point, I'd be feeling less conflicted now. I thought about it a couple of times, but the opportunity never seemed to present itself. And now it never will. **

Finnick coughs. "You _could_ thank him now, you know. Since we're all here and everything."

"Thank you," Katniss whispers, feeling a huge relief now that she had at least thanked him for the bread. _Still, it doesn't shake how indebted I feel towards him._

Peeta gives an almost imperceptible nod. "I would do it again if I had to."

Katniss looks away. _Why is he so kind to me?_

**Because we're going to be thrown into an arena to fight to the death. Exactly how am I supposed to work in a thank-you in there? Somehow it just won't seem sincere if I'm trying to slit his throat. **

Peeta laughs, the sound choked.

"Don't slit his throat," Johanna says. "Unless you hit all the veins just right, it's not a quick death like you'd think it is."

"Okay," Katniss says, mentally filing the information away. _If it comes down to me and Peeta, I don't know what I'll do. I have to make it back to Prim, but if I have to kill Peeta, I want it to be as painless as possible. But I really hope I won't have to._

**The mayor finishes the dreary Treaty of Treason and motions for Peeta and me to shake hands. His are as solid and warm as those loaves of bread. Peeta looks me right in the eye and gives my hand what I think is meant to be a reassuring squeeze. Maybe it's just a nervous spasm**.

** We turn back to face the crowd as the anthem of Panem plays. **

_**Oh, well**_**, I think. **_**There will be twenty-four of us. Odds are someone else will kill him before I do.**_

_I certainly hope so_, Katniss thinks.

"The odds are never in your favor," Haymitch says. "Even if you do win, they're never in your favor."

Katniss wonders what he means and why Finnick's face is scrunched up in something that looks like pain or maybe anger. Johanna's face is blank, but her eyes are filled with fire and rage._ Is this a game I can't win even if I do win? What does that even mean?_

** Of course, the odds have not been very dependable of late.**

"That sounds ominous," Johanna says. "You're probably going to have to kill him."

"Peeta's strong," Katniss says. "If we were in a fight without weapons, he'd win."

Haymitch purses his lips together. "Don't let your competition see your strengths. Save it for the Gamemakers, alright?"

Katniss and Peeta nod.

"Who wants to read?" Cinna asks.

"Are you sure you don't want to, Cinna?" Effie asks. "You have such a lovely voice."

"Thank you, but I'll pass this time," Cinna says.

"I'll read," Finnick says and holds his hand out to Cinna for the book.

* * *

**A/N**: Thanks for reading. Review!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary**: Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Prim, Haymitch, Effie, Cinna, Finnick, and Johanna read _The Hunger Games_.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own _The Hunger Games. _

**A/N**: Here's another chapter. Thanks for the reviews. I really appreciate how awesome you guys are!

* * *

Finnick clears his throat and begins to read.

**The moment the anthem ends, we are taken into custody. I don't mean we're handcuffed or anything, but a group of Peacekeepers marches us through the front door of the Justice Building. Maybe tributes have tried to escape in the past. **

"Happened my year," Haymitch says. "Stupid boy thought he'd be able to get out amongst all the people since there were twice as many tributes and twice as many visitors to say goodbye."

"I imagine that didn't end well," says Cinna.

"No," Haymitch says, "it didn't."

But he doesn't say anymore about it.

**I've never seen that happen though.**

**Once inside, I'm conducted to a room and left alone. It's the richest place I've ever been in, with thick, deep carpets and a velvet couch and chairs. I know velvet because my mother has a dress with a collar made of the stuff. **

**When I sit on the couch, I can't help running my fingers over the fabric repeatedly. It helps to calm me as I try to prepare for the next hour. The time allotted for the tributes to say goodbye to their loved ones. I cannot afford to get upset, to leave this room with puffy eyes and a red nose. Crying is not an option. There will be more cameras at the train station.**

"Smart move," Finnick says and nods before continuing.

**My sister and my mother come first. I reach out to Prim and she climbs on my lap, her arms around my neck, head on my shoulder, just like she did when she was a toddler.**

Katniss is grateful that Prim doesn't replicate the position now. It's a personal thing that she'd rather keep between her and Prim.

**My mother sits beside me and wraps her arms around us. My mother sits beside me and wraps her arms around us. For a few minutes, we say nothing. Then I start telling them all the things they must remember to do, now that I will not be there to do them for them.**

"Typical Catnip," Gale says.

**Prim is not to take any tesserae. They can get by, if they're careful, on selling Prim's goat milk and cheese and the small apothecary business my mother now runs for the people in the Seam. Gale will get her the herbs she doesn't grow herself, but she must be very careful to describe them because he's not as familiar with them as I am. He'll also bring them game — he and I made a pact about this a year or so ago — and will probably not ask for compensation, but they should thank him with some kind of trade, like milk or medicine.**

Prim smiles. "Thanks, Gale."

Gale nods. "Of course, Prim."

"I'll make sure you get some of Lady's milk," Prim says.

Despite everything, this makes Katniss feel much better.

**I don't bother suggesting Prim learn to hunt. I tried to teach her a couple of times and it was disastrous. The woods terrified her, and whenever I shot something, she'd get teary and talk about how we might be able to heal it if we got it home soon enough.**

"You sweet girl," Effie says.

**But she makes out well with her goat, so I concentrate on that.**

**When I am done with instructions about fuel, and trading, and staying in school, I turn to my mother and grip her arm, hard. "Listen to me. Are you listening to me?" **

**She nods, alarmed by my intensity. She must know what's coming. "You can't leave again," I say.**

"I'm sure this is hard on her, Katniss," Prim says. "You don't need to do this."

Katniss smiles weakly. _But I do, Prim. She has to take care of you._

**My mother's eyes find the floor. "I know. I won't. I couldn't help what—"**

"**Well, you have to help it this time. You can't clock out and leave Prim on her own. There's no me now to keep you both alive. It doesn't matter what happens. Whatever you see on the screen. You have to promise me you'll fight through it!"**

**My voice has risen to a shout. In it is all the anger, all the fear I felt at her abandonment.**

**She pulls her arm from my grasp, moved to anger herself now. "I was ill. I could have treated myself if I'd had the medicine I have now."**

**That part about her being ill might be true. I've seen her bring back people suffering from immobilizing sadness since. Perhaps it is a sickness, but it's one we can't afford**.

"Can anyone?" asks Johanna, frowning.

"**Then take it. And take care of her!" I say.**

"**I'll be all right, Katniss," says Prim, clasping my face in her hands. "But you have to take care, too. You're so fast and brave. Maybe you can win."**

"You can," says Prim.

**I can't win. Prim must know that in her heart. **

Prim shakes her head. "I don't know that because it's not true."

"You're good with a bow, right?" Finnick asks. "You can hunt _and _kill with that skill. That rhymed, by the way. Just pointing it out. I'm getting better at my poetry every day."

"Vomit," Johanna says to Finnick.

"We can team up," Peeta says to Katniss.

"You sure about that?" Haymitch asks. "Nothing against either of you, but the thing is attachments aren't always a good thing. You know what? Let's see what future me says and then figure it out." _They're still probably going to get killed. This is much worse than most years though. No alcohol and I have to get to know these damn kids._

"You're small, though," Johanna says. "People could underestimate you for that."

"Maybe," Katniss says.

**The competition will be far beyond my abilities. **

"You can't be defeated so easily," Johanna says, annoyed.

**Kids from wealthier districts, where winning is a huge honor, who've been trained their whole lives for this. Boys who are two to three times my size. Girls who know twenty different ways to kill you with a knife. Oh, there'll be people like me, too. People to weed out before the real fun begins.**

"You are an eternal optimist, Katniss," Finnick says.

"It's easy for the three of you to criticize me," Katniss says. "You're the lucky ones, the ones who got out."

Haymitch snorts. "Don't know if I'd call myself lucky."

"**Maybe," I say, because I can hardly tell my mother to carry on if I've already given up myself. Besides, it isn't in my nature to go down without a fight, even when things seem insurmountable**.

_There's a spark in those eyes_, Cinna thinks, _like…fire_. _Fire…burning…coal…almost got it…fire. If I use synthetic…capes…black…definitely not coal miners._

"**Then we'd be rich as Haymitch."**

"**I don't care if we're rich. I just want you to come home. You will try, won't you? Really, really try?" asks Prim.**

"Will you?" Prim asks.

Katniss nods and pets Prim's hair. "Anything for you, little duck."

"**Really, really try. I swear it," I say. And I know, because of Prim, I'll have to. And then the Peacekeeper is at the door, signaling our time is up, and we're all hugging one another so hard it hurts and all I'm saying is "I love you. I love you both." **

**And they're saying it back and then the Peacekeeper orders them out and the door closes. I bury my head in one of the velvet pillows as if this can block the whole thing out.**

**Someone else enters the room, and when I look up, I'm surprised to see it's the ****baker, Peeta Mellark's father. I can't believe he's come to visit me.**

"I can," Peeta says. "He's always liked you. Prim, too."

**After all, I'll be trying to kill his son soon. But we do know each other a bit, and he knows Prim even better. When she sells her goat cheeses at the Hob, she puts two of them aside for him and he gives her a generous amount of bread in return. **

**We always wait to trade with him when his witch of a wife-**

"That's the nice way to say it," says Haymitch.

**-isn't around because he's so much nicer. I feel certain he would never have hit his son the way she did over the burned bread. **

"Does he?" Effie asks, always nosing into other's business.

Peeta shakes his head, and Katniss lets out a sigh of relief.

**But why has he come to see me?**

**The baker sits awkwardly on the edge of one of the plush chairs. He's a big, broad-shouldered man with burn scars from years at the ovens. He must have just said goodbye to his son.**

**He pulls a white paper package from his jacket pocket and holds it out to me. I open it and find cookies. **

"Nobody brought _me_ cookies when I volunteered," Finnick says with a childish pout.

"That's because you don't need them," Johanna says, joking, and pinches his one of his abs.

"I am pleasantly plump, thank you very much," Finnick says, "and I'm insulted now."

**These are a luxury we can never afford.**

"**Thank you," I say. The baker's not a very talkative man in the best of times, and today he has no words at all. "I had some of your bread this morning. My friend Gale gave you a squirrel for it." **

**He nods, as if remembering the squirrel.**

"**Not your best trade," I say. He shrugs as if it couldn't possibly matter. Then I can't think of anything else, so we sit in silence until a Peacemaker summons him. He rises and coughs to clear his throat. "I'll keep an eye on the little girl. Make sure she's eating."**

Katniss takes a quick look at Peeta. _He must get his kindness from his father._

**I feel some of the pressure in my chest lighten at his words. People deal with me, but they are genuinely fond of Prim. Maybe there will be enough fondness to keep her alive.**

"People like you, Katniss," Peeta says quietly. "People find you mysterious."

"You're joking," Katniss says.

"It's true," Gale says. "I think that if you weren't so caught up in your own world, you'd see it too."

**My next guest is also unexpected. Madge walks straight to me. She is not weepy or evasive, instead there's an urgency about her tone that surprises me.**

"**They let you wear one thing from your district in the arena. One thing to remind you of home. Will you wear this?" She holds out the circular gold pin that was on her dress earlier. I hadn't paid much attention to it before, but now I see it's a small bird in flight.**

"No…" Haymitch places his head in his hands. "It can't be."

"What's wrong?" Finnick asks.

Haymitch doesn't answer.

"**Your pin?" I say. Wearing a token from my district is about the last thing on my mind.**

"**Here, I'll put it on your dress, all right?" Madge doesn't wait for an answer, she just leans in and fixes the bird to my dress. "Promise you'll wear it into the arena, Katniss?" she asks. "Promise?"**

"**Yes," I say. Cookies. A pin. I'm getting all kinds of gifts today. Madge gives me one more. A kiss on the cheek. Then she's gone and I'm left thinking that maybe Madge really has been my friend all along.**

**Finally, Gale is here and maybe there is nothing romantic between us, but when he opens his arms I don't hesitate to go into them. **

"Oooh," Finnick cat-calls. "Somebody's got a boyfriend."

Gale laughs. _Maybe I have a shot with her after all._

"Shut up," Katniss says and covers her cheeks with her hands. _It's not like that._

**His body is familiar to me— the way it moves, the smell of wood smoke, even the sound of his heart beating I know from quiet moments on a hunt — but this is the first time I really feel it, lean and hard-muscled against my own.**

"This isn't really the time to be attacked by your hormones," Johanna says.

Katniss glares._ I hate you for this._

Peeta, on the other hand, smiles uncertainly. _She doesn't seem to like Gale that way._

"**Listen," he says. "Getting a knife should be pretty easy, but you've got to get your hands on a bow. That's your best chance."**

"**They don't always have bows," I say, thinking of the year there were only horrible spiked maces that the tributes had to bludgeon one another to death with. **

"That was an exciting year," Effie says.

"If exciting, you mean disgusting, yes," says Johanna, "that'd be spot on. Those were all slow, painful deaths."

"**Then make one," says Gale. "Even a weak bow is better than no bow at all."**

**I have tried copying my father's bows with poor results. It's not that easy. Even he had to scrap his own work sometimes.**

"**I don't even know if there'll be wood," I say. Another year, they tossed everybody into a landscape of nothing but boulders and sand and scruffy bushes. I particularly hated that year. Many contestants were bitten by venomous snakes or went insane from thirst.**

"That was…three years ago, right?" Johanna asks.

Finnick nods. "The year after Annie's year."

"Annie?" Effie asks. "Annie Cresta? Are you two friends, Finnick? I hear she's quite insane."

"Leave her alone," Finnick says, eyes heated. Then he clears his throat, smiles at Effie and reads again.

"**There's almost always some wood," Gale says. "Since that year half of them ****died of cold. Not much entertainment in that."**

**It's true. We spent one Hunger Games watching the players freeze to death at night. You could hardly see them because they were just huddled in balls and had no wood for fires or torches or anything. It was considered very anti-climactic in the Capitol, all those quiet, bloodless deaths. Since then, there's usually been wood to make fires.**

"Which isn't always a good idea," Johanna says. "To make a fire, I mean."

"Plants a target on your position," Haymitch agrees. "But can't always be avoided."

"**Yes, there's usually some," I say.**

"**Katniss, it's just hunting. You're the best hunter I know," says Gale.**

"**It's not just hunting. They're armed. They think," I say.**

"**So do you. And you've had more practice. Real practice," he says. "You know how to kill."**

"**Not people," I say.**

"**How different can it be, really?" says Gale grimly.**

"Oh, you'd be surprised," says Haymitch.

Katniss grimaces. _That doesn't reassure me._

**The awful thing is that if I can forget they're people, it will be no different at all.**

"But can you forget?" asks Peeta._ I don't think I can._

"I don't know," Katniss says.

**The Peacekeepers are back too soon and Gale asks for more time, but they're ****taking him away and I start to panic. "Don't let them starve!" I cry out, clinging to ****his hand.**

"**I won't! You know I won't! Katniss, remember I —" he says, and they yank us apart and slam the door and I'll never know what it was he wanted me to remember.**

Gale pretends he's unsure when people look at him and shrugs. _Was I trying to tell her I love her?_

**It's a short ride from the Justice Building to the train station.** **I've never been in a car before. Rarely even ridden in wagons. In the Seam, we travel on foot. I've been right not to cry. The station is swarming with reporters with their insectlike cameras trained directly on my face. But I've had a lot of practice at wiping my face clean of emotions and I do this now. I catch a glimpse of myself on the television screen on the wall that's airing my arrival live and feel gratified that I appear almost bored.**

**Peeta Mellark-**

"You could call me by my first name," Peeta says.

_But then I'd have to get to know you_, Katniss thinks, _and there's already too much connecting me to you._

**-on the other hand, has obviously been crying and interestingly enough does not seem to be trying to cover it up. **

**I immediately wonder if this will be his strategy in the Games. To appear weak and frightened, to reassure the other tributes that he is no competition at all, and then come out fighting. **

**This worked very well for a girl, Johanna Mason-**

"Hey, Jo," says Finnick. "You're in the book! Now…where am I?"

"Don't call me that," Johanna says, but looks pleased nonetheless.

**-from District 7 a few years back. She seemed like such a sniveling, cowardly fool that no one bothered about her until there were only a handful of contestants left. It turned out she could kill viciously. Pretty clever, the way she played it.**

"No one else had a chance," Finnick says. _Not even Triton and Pearl._

**But this seems an odd strategy for Peeta Mellark because he's a baker's son. All those years of having enough to eat and hauling bread trays around have made him broad-shouldered and strong. It will take an awful lot of weeping to convince anyone to overlook him.**

"You certainly don't look like a weakling," Johanna says and winks at Peeta.

Peeta chuckles.

**We have to stand for a few minutes in the doorway of the train while the cameras gobble up our images, then we're allowed inside and the doors close mercifully behind us. The train begins to move at once.**

**The speed initially takes my breath away. Of course, I've never been on a train, as travel between the districts is forbidden except for officially sanctioned duties. For us, that's mainly transporting coal. But this is no ordinary coal train. It's one of the high-speed Capitol models that average 250 miles per hour. Our journey to the Capitol will take less than a day.**

**In school, they tell us the Capitol was built in a place once called the Rockies. District 12 was in a region known is Appalachia. **

**Even hundreds of years ago, they mined coal here. Which is why our miners have to dig so deep.**

**Somehow it all comes back to coal at school. Besides basic reading and math most of our instruction is coal-related. Except for the weekly lecture on the history of Panem. It's mostly a lot of blather about what we owe the Capitol. I know there must be more than they're telling us, an actual account of what happened during the rebellion. But I don't spend much time thinking about it. Whatever the truth is, I don't see how it will help me get food on the table.**

"But we need to think about it," Gale says. "If we could get all the districts united and fight back…"

Katniss shrugs. "But would that feed me and my family?"

**The tribute train is fancier than even the room in the Justice Building. We are each given our own chambers that have a bedroom, a dressing area, and a private bathroom with hot and cold running water. We don't have hot water at home, unless we boil it.**

**There are drawers filled with fine clothes, and Effie Trinket tells me to do anything I want, wear anything I want, everything is at my disposal. Just be ready for supper in an hour. I peel off my mother's blue dress and take a hot shower. I've never had a shower before. It's like being in a summer rain, only warmer. I dress in a dark green shirt and pants.**

**At the last minute, I remember Madge's little gold pin. For the first time, I get a good look at it. It's as if someone fashioned a small golden bird and then attached a ring around it. The bird is connected to the ring only by its wing tips. I suddenly recognize it. A mockingjay.**

Haymitch hits his head against the wall. "I want my damn alcohol." He stands up and shouts. "Is that so hard to give me?" Then he falls back to the ground and hits his head a few more times.

"Something wrong with mockingjays, Haymitch?" Finnick asks.

"I don't like them," Haymitch says. "They're stupid little birds." _That was Maysilee's token…_

**They're funny birds and something of a slap in the face to the Capitol. **

"Everyone in the Capitol thinks they're beautiful," says Effie.

**During the rebellion, the Capitol bred a series of genetically altered animals as weapons. The common term for them was muttations, or sometimes mutts for short. One was a special bird called a jabberjay that had the ability to memorize and repeat whole human conversations. They were homing birds, exclusively male, that were released into regions where the Capitol's enemies were known to be hiding. **

**After the birds gathered words, they'd fly back to centers to be recorded. It took people awhile to realize what was going on in the districts, how private conversations were being transmitted. Then, of course, the rebels fed the Capitol endless lies, and the joke was on it. So the centers were shut down and the birds were abandoned to die off in the wild.**

**Only they didn't die off. Instead, the jabberjays mated with female mockingbirds creating a whole new species that could replicate both bird whistles and human melodies. They had lost the ability to enunciate words but could still mimic a range of human vocal sounds, from a child's high-pitched warble to a man's deep tones. And they could re-create songs. Not just a few notes, but whole songs with multiple verses, if you had the patience to sing them and if they liked your voice.**

**My father was particularly fond of mockingjays. When we went hunting, he would whistle or sing complicated songs to them and, after a polite pause, they'd always sing back. Not everyone is treated with such respect. But whenever my father sang, all the birds in the area would fall silent and listen. His voice was that beautiful, high and clear and so filled with life it made you want to laugh and cry at the same time. **

"That's why your mom married your dad," Peeta says. "Did you know that?"

"No..I, uh," Katniss says, "how do you know that?"

"I just do."

"That's romantic," Prim says, grinning.

**I could never bring myself to continue the practice after he was gone. Still, there's something comforting about the little bird. It's like having a piece of my father with me, protecting me. I fasten the pin onto my shirt, and with the dark green fabric as a background, I can almost imagine the mockingjay flying through the trees**.

**Effie Trinket comes to collect me for supper. I follow her through the narrow, rocking corridor into a dining room with polished paneled walls. There's a table where all the dishes are highly breakable. Peeta Mellark sits waiting for us, the chair next to him empty.**

"**Where's Haymitch?" asks Effie Trinket brightly.**

"**Last time I saw him, he said he was going to take a nap," says Peeta.**

"**Well, it's been an exhausting day," says Effie Trinket. I think she's relieved by Haymitch's absence, and who can blame her?**

"Don't lie, Trinket," Haymitch says, wagging his eyebrows. "You love my company."

"Hmm," says Effie, "not quite."

**The supper comes in courses. A thick carrot soup, green salad, lamb chops and ****mashed potatoes, cheese and fruit, a chocolate cake. Throughout the meal, Effie ****Trinket keeps reminding us to save space because there's more to come. But I'm stuffing myself because I've never had food like this, so good and so much, and ****because probably the best thing I can do between now and the Games is put on a few pounds.**

"**At least, you two have decent manners," says Effie as we're finishing the main course. "The pair last year ate everything with their hands like a couple of savages. It completely upset my digestion."**

"You were very polite about it," Haymitch says. "I'm sure they couldn't tell that's how you felt when you were so passive aggressive about it. By the way, most people in Twelve are a little too busy trying to survive to be well-mannered. So stuff it, Effie."

Effie's mouth drops open.

**The pair last year were two kids from the Seam who'd never, not one day of their lives, had enough to eat. And when they did have food, table manners were surely the last thing on their minds**. **Peeta's a baker's son. My mother taught Prim and I to eat properly, so yes, I can handle a fork and knife. But I hate Effie Trinket's comment so much I make a point of eating the rest of my meal with my fingers. **

"Ha!" Haymitch says, starting to laugh. "Someone who will spite Effie with me!"

"So gross," says Finnick, "but also amusing."

**Then I wipe my hands on the tablecloth. This makes her purse her lips tightly together.**

The entire room sans Effie laughs at this.

**Now that the meal's over, I'm fighting to keep the food down. I can see Peeta's ****looking a little green, too. Neither of our stomachs is used to such rich fare. But if I can hold down Greasy Sae's concoction of mice meat, pig entrails, and tree bark— a winter specialty — I'm determined to hang on to this.**

"That…that…is revolting," Effie says, looking green herself.

We go to another compartment to watch the recap of the reapings across Panem.

"Okay, finally," Johanna says. "We're getting to something interesting."

**They try to stagger them throughout the day so a person could conceivably watch the whole thing live, but only people in the Capitol could really do that, since none of them have to attend reapings themselves.**

"We do," Effie says. "I mean, I can't obviously, but people throw these wonderfully lavish reaping parties where everyone gets together and watches them. At better parties, there's about twenty-four people, and you pick your tribute from a hat and pretend to be dead when the tribute's killed. Oh, I miss those times."

Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Johanna, and Finnick exchange disgusted looks.

"Only in the Capitol," says Haymitch coldly.

**One by one, we see the other reapings, the names called, (the volunteers stepping forward or, more often, not. We examine the faces of the kids who will be our competition. A few stand out in my mind. **

**A monstrous boy who lunges forward to volunteer from District 2. **

"Seems like that boy will be one of your biggest concerns," Finnick says.

"District Two just won last year," Effie says. "I hope they don't win again. I like the suspense."

**A fox-faced girl with sleek red hair from District 5. **

"Why her?" Johanna asks. "Does she look like a weakling or something?"

"I don't know," Katniss says. "This is in the future. Remember?"

**A boy with a crippled foot from District 10. **

At this, Prim begins to sniffle. "He won't have a chance."

**And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that, she's very like Prim in size and demeanor. Only when she mounts the stage and they ask for volunteers, all you can hear is the wind whistling through the decrepit buildings around her. There's no one willing to take her place.**

_That poor girl,_ Katniss thinks. _Maybe…maybe I could help her._

**Last of all, they show District 12. Prim being called, me running forward to volunteer. You can't miss the desperation in my voice as I shove Prim behind me, as if I'm afraid no one will hear and they'll take Prim away. But, of course, they do hear. **

**I see Gale pulling her off me and watch myself mount the stage. The commentators are not sure what to say about the crowd's refusal to applaud. The silent salute. One says that District 12 has always been a bit backward but that local customs can be charming. **

"The Capitol never understands anything," says Johanna.

**As if on cue, Haymitch falls off the stage, and they groan comically. Peeta's name is drawn, and he quietly takes his place. We shake hands. They cut to the anthem again, and the program ends.**

**Effie Trinket is disgruntled about the state her wig was in. "Your mentor has a lot to learn about presentation. A lot about televised behavior." **

"It must be nice that televised behavior is your only concern in life," says Haymitch. "Tell me, is it difficult being you, Effie?"

"Well, sometimes," Effie says, "but I don't like your tone, Haymitch."

**Peeta unexpectedly laughs. "He was drunk," says Peeta. "He's drunk every year."**

"**Every day," I add. **

**I can't help smirking a little. Effie Trinket makes it sound like Haymitch just has somewhat rough manners that could be corrected with a few tips from her.**

"See," says Haymitch, "this girl understands me!"

"**Yes," hisses Effie Trinket. **

"I do not hiss," Effie hisses.

This sends a chuckle around the room.

"**How odd you two find it amusing. You know your mentor is your lifeline to the world in these Games. The one who advises you, lines up your sponsors, and dictates the presentation of any gifts. Haymitch can well be the difference between your life and your death!"**

"Jeez, Effie," says Finnick. "It's not their fault that Haymitch is a drunk. Don't rub the fact that they're going to die in their faces. _That's _rude."

"Someone's giving Effie Trinket a lesson on manners," Haymitch says. "Oh, this day has gotten much better."

**Just then, Haymitch staggers into the compartment. "I miss supper?" he says in a slurred voice. **

**Then he vomits all over the expensive carpet and falls in the mess.**

Effie goes green again.

"**So laugh away!" says Effie Trinket. She hops in her pointy shoes around the pool of vomit and flees the room.**

"Wouldn't want to have to clean up after me, would you?" Haymitch asks with a laugh.

"I don't think most people would," says Cinna.

"That one went quickly," Prim says.

"I'll read next," Peeta says and walks over to Finnick to get the book.

* * *

**A/N**: Another one bites the dust. Review!


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